Posted tagged ‘Anthony Decomposition’

Casey Anthony’s parents, George and Cindy Anthony, returned to the stand this morning on this, the 31st day of their daughters murder trial.

Jose Baez attempted to ask Cindy Anthony questions about her son, Lee, allegedly groping Casey Anthony in her bedroom. After a few more questions for Cindy, Baez called George Anthony to the stand, where he asked him about a statement he made to police back on July 24, 2008.

The father of Casey Anthony, who’s accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, testified Wednesday at her murder trial that he’s “100 percent sure” he smelled “human decomposition” coming from Casey Anthony’s car.

George Anthony, under questioning from defense attorneys, said, “I could smell it three feet away on the passenger side. When I opened up that car door, yeah, it smelled like decomposition … human decomposition.”

“I can close my eyes again sir and I can smell that again,” George Anthony said to defense attorney Jose Baez, adding that he was able identify the odor of human decay after years of working in law enforcement.

“The instant flash in my mind (was), whew, I know what that smells like,” said manager Simon Birch, who examined the car within four to five days of it being stored at the lot.

No one reported Caylee missing until July 15, 2008, when Cindy and George went to the impound lot after receiving a notice that Casey’s car was there.

After driving the car home and confronting Casey, Cindy called 911 and told police her granddaughter was missing. She said Casey wouldn’t tell her where Caylee was, and that she smelled “a dead body” in Casey’s car trunk.

Birch testified he worked several years for a garbage company and about 30 years in tow lots, where six or eight times he had smelled the odor of decomposing human remains in a vehicle. He said he recognized the difference between human decay and trash.

Results released today state that air samples from the car trunk of Casey Anthony, accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony, contain evidence of body decomposition.

The report’s final conclusion is that the results of the tests and comparisons demonstrate that “a portion of the total odor signature identified in the Florida vehicle trunk is consistent with a decompositional event that could be of human origin.”

UPDATE:

CNN also has a video from Nancy Grace discussing the “death band” on the found hair which has been linked to Caylee.

Authorities on Friday released a report from a Tennessee lab that found five compounds consistent with body decomposition. Tests found evidence of decomposition on a hair strand found in the trunk, described as “microscopically similar” to one found on Caylee’s hair brush.

The report details findings from FBI tests on items found inside Casey’s car, including DNA results on hair samples and forensic testing of debris and clothing (read details).

Among the results is confirmation that a hair sample found in the vehicle “exhibits characteristics of apparent decomposition.” The report also says that specific hair is “microscopically similar” to hair investigators took from Caylee’s hairbrush, but couldn’t confirm it was conclusively Caylee’s.

DNA testing done on that piece of hair and compared with a sample provided by Casey confirmed that neither Casey nor Caylee can be “excluded as the source of the hair,” because the “mtDNA sequences … are the same.”

Tests also confirmed “residues of chloroform” within a spare tire cover found inside the trunk of Casey’s car.

“Residues consistent with chloroform” were also found within the left and right side trunk liner. The report says no other chemicals were detected within those items.

Odor tests that were conducted on the carpet inside Casey’s car concluded that 80 percent of the chemicals identified were “consistent with decompositional events.”

The results of the FBI’s Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) on the same carpet concluded that “while these are still preliminary results … both odor analysis and LIBS results appear to be quite consistent with a decompositional event having occurred in the trunk of the vehicle.”

The FBI lab tested items found in the trunk of Anthony’s Pontiac Sunfire, including a hair strand, pieces from a tire cover and the trunk liner. Here are some of the findings:

* The root of the hair showed signs of decomposition. A comparison to hair taken from Caylee’s brush and DNA taken from Anthony showed that neither the mother nor the daughter could be excluded as the source of the hair.

* Pants, skirts and shirts taken from Anthony’s home showed no signs of hair with decomposing roots.

* Residues of chloroform were found on a tire cover in the trunk.

* A hair fragment was found in the label on the handle of a shovel Anthony borrowed from a neighbor in mid-June, about the time Caylee is supposed to have disappeared. The hair was too small for microscopic comparison but DNA analysis found it did not belong to Casey Anthony or Caylee.

* No fingerprints were found on the shovel.

Air samples and pieces of carpet from the trunk were sent Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to determine whether there was signs of decomposition. The lab has been doing this type of research since 2002 and has developed the Decompositional Odor Analysis database.